Did you miss out on the big Atari scavenger hunt dig at the Alamogordo, NM landfill, back in April of this year? We followed the expedition and, spoiler!, they did indeed find gaming treasure! Then, of course, the question arises, what to do with all that video have loot. After all, if you go to the trouble of digging something up out of a landfill, you can’t exactly just put it back because no one wants it. So the city of Alamogordo has decided they will sell some games, and donate many others to museums around the world that have expressed interest. The city owns the games now by way of what is surely some sort of Byzantine bylaw involving the fact that they were throw in the trash and buried in the city’s landfill since 1983.

Members of the Alamogordo City Council voted 7-0 late on Tuesday to offer some 800 of the Atari games found earlier this year for sale on eBay and the council’s own website.

The unearthed games are under the custodianship of the Tularosa Basin Historical Society and stored at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, 200 miles (320 km) southeast of Albuquerque.

So far, there is nothing on the city of Alamogordo’s website about the sales, but we’ll try to keep an eye out for auction news! The film centering somewhat around the dig story, and certainly the impetus behind making it happen, is also due out soon. “The documentary will be released sometime this fall, and it will only be available on Xbox One and Xbox 360. It’s only the first in an original series called Signal to Noise, which will examine aspects of video game culture from new perspectives.” (arstechnica.) See the trailer after the jump!

The great thing about the “Other” categories on eBay Motors is that occasionally, instead of getting some random suspension parts that someone just listed poorly, instead you get something really out there. An example, a recent listing for a narrow gauge locomotive pair. What is better than one stream engine? Two.

The engines were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia, for plantation service on the island of Oahu. Delivered in 1899 and 1916 respectively.
Sold to a sugar plantation in the Philippines in 1947, the engines worked there until 1998 when they were set aside. Recovered in 2004, these two steam locomotives represent some of the very few Hawaii engines to have survied.
The 1899 engine was nameed”” Halawa” and is an 0-6-2 tank engine of 18 tons- her sister engine, named “” Manana” was built in 1916 to the exact same design. Both ran on the Honolulu Plantation Co operation near Pearl Harbor until 1947, when they were sold to the Hawaiian-Philippine Surgar Co, of Silay City, Island of Negros, Phillippines. To have located a matched pair of Baldwin engines with Hawaii History is a major feat.

Both engines are 36″ gage. Manana was in operating condition when we purchased it from the Philippines, but I think the boiler will need to be replaced. Halawa will need a new boiler for sure. Also the tops of the cabs were cut off for shipping.

Is there certain information that seems to be missing? Do the pictures look like cell phone photos of a computer screen showing images of previously taken photos? Is $275,000 a whole lot of money to spend on something you would have to build a special railway for? Yes on all counts!

It is really quite amazing the sheen variety of goods that someone can acquire and then not be able to get rid of, and decide to hand out free. Here at AT, we like to start our Sunday mornings out taking a look at such free items from online classifieds like the Craigslist, especially that stuff that is bits of obscure technology. But especially items that are just completely out there that you never would have expected, and our big winner found just such a thing. Or well, things, whatever, hit the jump and check it out!

It is time again to take a look at some of the glorious free old-tech swag available on the webs! Go onto your favorite local online or print classifieds, or just drive down the street in the evening after garage sale time, and see what sort of quality merchandise is being given away free. Then share woth all of us in the comments!

Last week was a little slow, so I thought today I would share a few things that have recently come up in my neck of the woods!

Welcome to our weekly look at the best bits of tech (or not) the internet has to offer up for the price of free! Congratulations are in order for last week’s big winner, mkep819, for some excellent bundles of twine! I am not entirely sure about the ethics of having an elderly family […]

It is Sunday, and not only that, it is Mothers Day, and you know what that means–SFSIWI time! You mom is always telling you it isn’t the amount of money you spent or the gift you buy, right? It is the thought that counts! And what better thought than to tell mom you were […]

The other day at work, in our lounge type area, I happened to catch a commercial on tv that I hadn’t seen in years. Apparently NuFinish still makes car products, and they also are apparently still showing the same commercials I remember with the guy in the junkyard polishing some 80’s Taurus or […]

It’s Easter Sunday today, and I hope everyone is having a glorious morning! Perhaps you have been up since before dawn, trying to catch that rascally rabbit before he eggs up your lawn. Perhaps you are simply looking forward to buying cut rate Cadbury eggs tomorrow morning at the grocery store. Either way, […]

Spring seems to be in the full swing of all its springy goodness, swinging from nice warm sunny days to storms and snow (not where I live, but I mean, so I hear). It also brings with it the joys of being motivated to clean out such fun locations as the garage, and […]

Free stuff is fun, but going out and grabbing someone’s discarded treasures always carries its own bit of risk. You could end up with a stinky couch, or some obsolete electronic device that requires spending semi-excessive amounts of money to make it work. But, there are certainly some things that are worth it! […]